Is there a government program that is erasing debts for Americans with more than $10,000 in debt? No, that's not true: A video that implies that there is a government program in which Americans can receive such debt relief is just an advertisement. Lead Stories has debunked a similarly misleading ad before. The claim appeared in a video posted to…

Did an Australian police officer named "Ed Chenel" detail an increase in that country's homicide rate a year after new gun control laws were introduced? No, that's not true: It's unclear whether Chenel ever existed but statistics from the Australian Institute of Criminology show that the new laws resulted in a lower rate of homicides nationally. The claim appeared in…

Did someone "torch" one of the largest egg factories in the United States on May 28, 2022? And is this incident connected to an "outbreak" of fires at similar facilities across the country in the past six months? No, those rumors are not grounded in facts: The Minnesota state fire marshal's office finished its investigation of the fire at Forsman…

Did the Department of Energy (DOE) say Americans buy at least 40 gallons of gas per week? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the DOE ever published statistics that made this claim, and the 40-gallons-of-gas-per-week claim also does not appear to be accurate. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on June 6, 2022. The post opens:…

Did President Joe Biden resign, with former President Donald Trump becoming the new president as of June 7, 2022? No, that's not true: Biden remained president, and the page making the claim that Trump was reinstated is likely part of a spam network. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on June 7, 2022. The post includes a video with…

Did responding police officers and emergency medical personnel in North Georgia die because of exposure to fentanyl? No, that's not true: Two Gilmer County sheriff's deputies and five Gilmer County emergency medical service personnel were treated -- and released from the hospital -- after exposure to "an unknown controlled substance" at the scene of a single-vehicle crash, according to a…

Was Dominion voting machine "manipulation" responsible for 2022 primary election problems In DeKalb County, Georgia? No, that's not true: The Georgia secretary of state's office says it was a mistake in programming the machines for a single countywide seat on the Democratic side of the ticket, not in the machines themselves. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published…

Does this brief video show an alien spaceship that crashed into the ocean? No, that's not true: This video shows a model or animation of the fictional starship from "Star Wars," the Millennium Falcon. The audio featured in this video clip is a fictional radio transmission from the video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2." There are traces of…

Were 84 members of U.S. Congress arrested for drunk driving throughout 2018? No, that's not true: There is no publicly available evidence suggesting that 84 members of Congress were arrested in 2018, let alone arrested for drunk driving. The claim -- which seemed to originate from a series of articles called "Congress: America's Criminal Class" posted on the website Capitol…

Did a 25-year-old woman visiting Yellowstone National Park die in the same week she was gored by a bison and tossed 10 feet in the air? No, that's not true: She survived. A representative of Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, the hospital where she was taken by ambulance after the May 30, 2022, incident, told Lead Stories on June 6,…

Do murders make up only 17% of gun-related deaths in the United States? No, that's not true: In 2020, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 45,222 people died from gun-related injuries in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of that total, 43% were attributed to murder, according to a…

Have the police in San Bernardino County shared that they received a tip that "white supremacy has made it clear they are shooting up all Walmarts and will kill blacks and Mexicans"? No, that's not true: The San Bernardino County, California, Sheriff's Department told Lead Stories they have no information "that indicates a credible threat" as of June 6, 2022.…

Did "Dr. Sebi" cure AIDS? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Alfredo Bowman -- a self-described herbalist who referred to himself as Dr. Sebi even though he received no formal education -- cured AIDS. Although Sebi claimed his list of clients included celebrities such as Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, John Travolta and Michael Jackson, many of Sebi's…

Was Tucker Carlson endorsing Black supremacist theories on his show on January 11, 2021? No, that's not true: The FOX News host was actually attacking the theories Kristen Clarke -- at the time the nominee for U.S. assistant attorney general -- wrote about in college in 1994. The claim appeared in a video on Instagram on June 4, 2022. It…

Can a man's penis carry female eggs from one woman to another by having sex with two different women? No, that's not true: Dr. Kecia Gaither, an OB-GYN and associate professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology with Cornell Weill Medicine, told Lead Stories that men cannot carry eggs from one woman to another via their penis. Normally, the sperm swims…

Does a photograph in a June 2022 news story show a destroyed Russian landing craft? No, that's not true: The photo shows a vessel that was hit by a missile off the coast of Ukraine back in February 2022. The photograph appeared in a YouTube post (archived here) published by Strong News on June 3, 2022. Titled "Ukrainian Forces Destroyed…

Did a BP executive named "Brice Cromwell" write a commentary being shared on social media that blames the high cost of oil and gasoline on the United States not producing enough of "our very own American made product"? No, that's not true: BP says it does not have an employee by that name and the post did not come from…

Did a Yuma County, Arizona, woman plead guilty to a role in a sophisticated ballot trafficking ring that supposedly stole the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump? No, that's not true: Guillermina Fuentes did plead guilty on June 2, 2022, to "one count of Ballot Abuse, a Class 6 Felony, for her role in an August 2020 Primary Election 'ballot…

Were 19,000 late, invalid ballots counted in the 2020 Arizona election? No, that's not true: An article making the claim relies on a report that appears to misconstrue what a particular type of receipt shows. It's a record of when election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, gave early ballot envelopes to a vendor to be scanned, not a receipt of…

Are "young and fit women under 40" dying from blood clots that are caused by the COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: The screengrab of the article posted is missing the context -- that the article was about a study in Scotland that ended before COVID vaccines were available to the public. The claim appeared in an Instagram post by…